Monday, March 14, 2011

Tracklist: David Thomas Broughton - Ain't Got No Sole

In what seems like a match made in singular solo performer/independent label combination heaven, Otley's oddest, a man who has supposedly spent some time recently living in North Korea, is finally releasing the much promised album Outbreeding on 23rd May having signed to Brainlove Records (his signature being a great looping recursive squiggle, shortly before he got up on the table and started interfering with the light socket) We've had a listen and the emotive quality of Broughton's we-still-think-he-sounds-like-Jake Thackray-even-if-nobody-else-does baritone against the raw pathos-laden imagery and darkly humorous offbeat moments, drones and loops driving a gleeful coach and horses through sometimes even upbeat acoustic pop-folk balladry, shines through perhaps better, certainly more directly approachable, than he's managed on record before. This is his most flagrantly poppish moment, even with the accordion in the mix and the lyric "I felt like one of those mental bastards - I lost my shoe". No, actually, especially with those.